​​A cage needs to have easy access

Following from where we briefly touched on this subject in the point above, it’s really important to have good access to your rats. Look for cages that give you the best ability to get access to your rats quickly in case you ever need to.

​A cages material needs special attention

You should pay special attention to the material of the cage. Wooden, plastic or glass cages/tanks aren’t nearly as good as proper metal cages.

The issue with cages such as those are that wooden cages can be chewed up and soak up urine which makes them smelly and difficult to clean.

Plastic cages or tanks are susceptible to ammonia staining which causes damage and can condensate – causing respiratory illnesses that rats are prone to anyway. Glass tanks have the same issues as the plastic one, providing little ventilation, plus rats like to climb so it’s really better to have an all metal cage preferably with bars.

There are several good things about this cage from MidWest. First of all it’s a fully functioning rat cage that’s designed to meet all the specifications we outlined above…

More importantly though it’s the overall quality of these features that really sell it. The cage is easily assembled (it’s a smaller counterpart of it’s larger version so takes less assembly time) and it’s very easy to clean.

With large wide swinging doors for ease-of-access and measuring at 36 x 24 x 39 inches it's a great size for a single rat who will certainly feel like they are living in a mansion. We give this cage a very good 8/10 and this is only because it's not really that large for high-end rat cages.

Not suitable for young rats and escape artists as the wire spacing isn't ideal.

The Kaytee ‘My First Home’ cage is a large plastic cage that’s designed for rats and small ferrets (and spoiled hamsters).

It’s not the largest cage on this list, and it would in our opinion only be suitable for one full-sized large adult rat.

With that being said it has plenty of room for accessories, it can certainly hold more than one rat if they're not very big and this cage also offers some of the modern perks of newer cages such as being set on wheels for easy moving, the tray is nice and deep for rats who like to scrabble and dig and it has enough height for climbers.

Quality of the cage on arrival has been hit and miss according to Amazon reviews.

It's fairly expensive.

This cage could have it all if it were not for one niggling issue which is that the main flooring areas are mesh instead of solid… We’ve included it on this list as an option for people who can comfortably make some small changes to the cage who also want the extra size.

With 3 platforms, 3 ramps and a hammock included we were actually initially tempted by this cage, as if you can do a little DIY tinkering then you could easily overcome the mesh issue and have it covered over as we said above.

Ultimately this cage is great for 2-3 rats but you've got to decide whether the trade-off is worth it because size can't make up for quality if you can't make the fixes that your rats really need.

This is the larger version of the cage we reviewed at the top of the list. Which is great if you have more than 1 or 2 rats as this cage can comfortably fit 3-5 rats of differing sizes with ease.

You can see more about this cage on this video from YouTube:

All things considered this cage is probably the better investment and price wise it's actually not a lot more expensive than the flawed Prevue Hendryx that we reviewed above here. It's also worth noting that this is the cage we use for our 5 male rats Kylo, Ren, Sirius, Kreacher & Stimpy.

Plastic pans should be replaced as rodents can get sick from chewing plastics.

It's fairly expensive.

This is another huge cage by MidWest and that’s probably because it’s made for ferrets (although most large rat cages can be used for ferrets and vice versa).

This cage is a close second in our opinion to the MidWest Critter Nation as the pans in this cage are plastic which are less than ideal for rodents that chew everything.

This isn’t to be bad-mouthing the cage though as it was designed for ferrets. It does give you a great alternative to the other cages on the list though as deals on certain cages often don’t run at the same time.

Just like the MidWest Critter Nation cage this stands nearly as tall as most average sized adults and it really is a palace that can keep 5 rats easily.

The Final Say:

To conclude, we've shown you what to look for in a good rat cage and we've also reviewed five of the best cages available at different price ranges.

Editors Rat Cage Pick

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